The present invention relates to a medicine feeding device which wraps medicines stored in tablet cases as much as an amount specified in accordance with a prescription at a hospital or a dispensing pharmacy.
Conventionally, at the hospital or the dispensing pharmacy, the medicine feeding device (tablet wrapping machine) has been used to provide medicines prescribed by a doctor. According to this system, the amount of medicines (tablets, capsules or the like) described in a prescription is discharged from a discharge drum (alignment board) in tablet cases (tablet storing and feeding members) one by one, and collected by a hopper. Then, wrapping paper (medical sheet) wound in a roll state is pulled out, use/purpose is printed on the wrapping paper by a printer, and then each is wrapped (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8 (1996)-11805).
In the case of wrapping a medicine by pulling out the wrapping paper wound in the roll state, proper tension is applied to prevent the occurrence of wrinkles. According to a conventional method for applying tension, an arm rotated and pressed by a coil spring is used, and the wrapping paper is hooked on a rod disposed on the tip of the arm to apply tension.
In such a case, as a pressing force of the coil spring is changed depending on a rotational angle of the arm, the tension applied to the wrapping paper is also changed. Wrinkles occur if this tension is too small. If too large conversely, there is a danger of cutting the wrapping paper.
In a nozzle for discharging/feeding a medicine to the wrapping paper, a shutter is disposed to control the feeding of the medicine by opening/closing a medicine dropping passage in the nozzle. On the other hand, the medicine dropping passage in the nozzle is constituted to have a narrow outlet to enable feeding of even shallow (small-width) wrapping paper. Consequently, when a medicine of a long capsule is discharged, there is a problem of clogging of the nozzle by the medicine.
The wrapping paper wound in the roll state is normally V-shaped roughly in section in which an upper surface is open and a lower end is folded (half-folding), and the nozzle is inserted into the wrapping paper from above. Slackening or wrinkles occur depending on a dimension of the nozzle to cause a problem of wrapping state failures.
In the case of pulling out the wrapping paper wound in the roll state to wrap the medicine therein, the roll of the wrapping paper is mounted on a wrapping paper delivery mechanism which is constituted of a base plate and an engaging shaft. In this case, the roll is mounted in the form of inserting the engaging shaft into a shaft tube of the roll of the wound wrapping paper. However, since a tensile force is applied to the roll when the wrapping paper is pulled out, the shaft tube may be disengaged from the engaging shaft. Thus, while falling-off can be prevented by making the engaging shaft longer, there is a problem of difficult mounting work.
Furthermore, in the case of pulling out the wrapping paper wound in the roll state, printing and wrapping the medicine, thermal-transfer printing which uses an ink ribbon is ordinarily utilized. However, in the medicine feeding device of this kind, since the printer is attached to a very narrow place on the midway of the wrapping machine, mounting of the ink ribbon becomes very difficult. Especially, when a wide ink ribbon is mounted, there is a problem of wrinkles or winding shifting.
The present invention is designed to solve the foregoing conventional technical problems, and to provide a medicine feeding device which can apply uniform tension to wrapping paper wound in a roll state to wrap a medicine.
The present invention provides a medicine feeding device which can effectively eliminate medicine-clogging of a nozzle for discharging a medicine to wrapping paper.
The present invention provides a medicine feeding device structured in such a manner that occurrence of slacking or wrinkles is difficult on wrapping paper by a nozzle.
The present invention provides a medicine feeding device which improves mounting workability while effectively eliminating inconvenient falling-off of wrapping paper wound in a roll state from a wrapping paper delivery mechanism.
The present invention provides a medicine feeding device which comprises a fixture for facilitating mounting of an ink ribbon on a printer which prints on wrapping paper wound in a roll state to wrap a medicine.